Great Egret, breeding plumage
Ardea alba
Great Egret · Everglades National Park · 6 February 2026
A Great Egret in breeding plumage in the Everglades in February, the loose, lacy plumes along the back on show. Great Egrets nest in colonies in the mangroves here and fish the shallows all round them, and the Everglades rookeries were where the species made its last stand a century ago.
The plumes are the aigrettes that very nearly finished the species off. They are grown only in breeding season, and useful to the bird only as a courtship display, which made the timing of the plume hunt especially costly: adults shot for their feathers in spring left that year's chicks in the nest to starve.
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